Fed up with the disregard for contract extensions given and apparent abandonment of the project, the government is preparing to terminate the contract with Trinidad and Tobago-based contractor Kallco Guyana Inc for the Conversation Tree to Dennis Street road project.
“It is clear they cannot do the work. They have abandoned the project… no one is there and there has been no word from the company… We are engaging with a view to termination,” Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill told the Stabroek News yesterday.
He said that last year the company’s principals had come to Guyana and promised that the work would be completed but his engineers have informed him that no one is currently on site and they seem to have abandoned the project.
Edghill said the government was engaging legal and other teams to ensure a smooth termination process.
The Conversation Tree Project was awarded by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board in 2022.
The Minister of Public Works reminded that Kallco, as well as the Cemetery Road contractors, had been warned last year that the government would move to liquidating damages and termination. In the wake of this, he said, the Cemetery Road contractors were forging ahead with their project but Kallco had “abandoned ship”.
Last December, Edghill had said that the contract would be terminated and that S Jagmohan Construction & General Supplies Inc would have completed all remaining work this year.
The project, which starts at the Conversation Tree corridor, links Sheriff Street to the Dennis Street corridor. This project was split into two lots with Lot 8 A executed by S Jagmohan Construction and General Supplies Inc for $$1,066, 358,738, and Lot 8 B executed by Kallco Guyana Inc for $830,293,458. The completion dates were September 5, 2022, and November 5, 2023, respectively.
However, since the project started several issues have been raised, progress of work being one cited by Edghill last July. Then, 65 percent of the contract time had elapsed but only 25 per cent of the work was completed, Edghill had told the Stabroek News. Coupled with that, residents had also complained to Stabroek News about stagnant water, breeding of mosquitoes and issues with accessing their properties. Edghill had urged the contractors to increase their production pace to ensure that the project was completed on time and to minimise any discomfort to residents.
Edghill was later forced to issue another statement cautioning the contractors about their non-performance, especially, Kallco Guyana Inc. Sometime after, Edghill had said that the ministry would approach the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board regarding blacklisting Kallco Guyana Inc from any future contracts in Guyana due to non-performance. However, officials from the company met with the ministry and the contractor was given the greenlight to resume work but without changes to the original completion deadline.
As at December last, the project was one month past its deadline and it remained nowhere close to completion. As of November 24, it was approximately 25 percent complete, according to the ministry.
The ministry had said that following the engagement with Kallco Guyana Inc in August 2023 to address the slow progress of the work, several commitments were made by the contractor to advance the work but approximately only 25 percent was completed which seems to be a result of some challenges still faced by the contractor. Consequently, the ministry had said that it would proceed with implementing liquidated damages and consider terminating the contract. The ministry said that as previously indicated to the contractor in August, the status then of the project would not have allowed it to be completed by the November 5, 2023 deadline and even if the contractor addressed the resource shortages, the project would not be substantially completed by December 31, 2023.
S Jagmohan Construction & General Supplies Inc on the other hand, as of November 24, 2023, had completed 65 percent of its work. However, according to the ministry, the project was set to move to approximately 80 percent completion by December 25, 2023. All work by Jagmohan was expected to be completed by January 31, 2024, the ministry had said.
